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I’m back in the saddle after winning a bout against a monster cold virus (cough cough); it’s been going around. And I’ll celebrate my renewed good health with another free story giveaway! This one is Biblically flavored: Sheba’s Lovely Maidens.

At another point in my life, where I was also sick with some nasty bug, and didn’t have anything else to do, I went ahead and cracked open the complete (Protestant) Bible I got in the fourth grade. Promptly I went to Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1, and didn’t stop until the last page of Revelations. (Yes, I read the whole thing in one go — like I said, I had a long convalescence! And no TV.)

Anyway, all the really fun and crazy stories are — no surprise — in the Old Testament. It’s full of war, betrayal, rape, seduction, lies, incest, miracles, sex, foreign invaders, sacrifice (human and otherwise), prostitution, masturbation; basically, everything interesting. If you can get through the long lists of who begat who, you can find plenty to tantalize your imagination. However, even in the midst of this excitement, one chapter continues to astound me: the Song of Songs.

What’s a love song doing in the Bible? It’s beautiful poetry, but erotic too; there is lengthy description of the beloved’s body, not to mention what our lovers intend to do with one another. I have no idea how the book made it through the Council of Nicea. But there it is — and it’s wonderful. My favorite part of the whole Bible.

As an author, I couldn’t help but take that scene, and run with it. Why not throw the Queen of Sheba’s epic visit to King Solomon into the mix, as well? The result: your free story of the week, Sheba’s Lovely Maidens. Enjoy!

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For a long time, I distributed my writing for free. It was the usual routine: I wrote a story for fun (and because it got me hot), gave it a cursory once-over, then plastered it on Literotica or — and I fully admit to this — WAY back in the day, on Fanfiction.net. (Yeah. Legolas was my guy in those heady days of the early 2000’s…) Anyway, at that time I considered myself an amateur. And I was; an amateur, of course, is someone who does something for the love of it, and nothing more.

I ceased to consider myself an amateur when I began investing more concentrated time (and money, too) in perfecting my work. I connected with beta readers, hired a proofreader, designed book covers, wrote and polished blurbs, edited, revised, and rewrote until I was sick of my own work. All of this was through a desire to make my writing the best it can possibly be. And in the process, I realized it had value. Real value: the worth of my time and effort.

So now, I consider myself an artisan. This is not the same thing as a professional. Professionals make their income from their work, whatever it is. Probably they have invested a large chunk of their life into their career, specializing in a profession, taking workshops and focused trainings, putting their nose to the grindstone and climbing the ladder. I do that, too, in my professional life. This is something I separate from my art, however.

Get it? Profession = professional; Art = artisan. So, unless you happen to be signed with a big publishing company, who pays you regularly and buys your work in advance, you, too, are an artisan. (There are professional artists, of course. My grandparents were; they struggled their whole lives with it. Hence, my preference for keeping art and work apart!)

Think about cheese – one of my favorite things! You can buy tasty cheese from professionals. Say, Tillamook. No matter where you are, you can get a nice brick of cheddar, knowing it has been made in a large, reputable plant, wherein they have been producing quality cheese for generations. Tillamook is a professional cheese-making business. They make TONS of cheese and maintain a level of quality we expect from professionals

Now imagine you’re at the local farmers market. Cheese can be found here, too, but this time it’s artisan cheese. You might find a small-batch herbed chevre, or fresh mozzarella. It’s all been lovingly made by hand, the product of individuals or small groups working in quite a different system than the big companies. Oftentimes artisanal cheese is delicious, far richer and more tempting than the grocery store variety. Other times, alas, it is less than amazing. In any case, it is likely to surprise you.

Lots of people say artisan is better, for this reason. Others prefer the consistency of professional products. Neither is right or wrong; they’re just two different ways of producing, buying, and enjoying cheese.

Keep that in mind when buying indie books. Self-published authors are artisans; we don’t work for any big company or publisher. There’s no safety net. We just quietly producing our work — our art — in the hopes that customers (that means you, gentle reader!) might prefer to buy a small, artisanal product rather than a predictable grocery store bestseller. Just know that, whichever you choose, there’s an artist behind it. But when you pay that artist directly, more of the benefit stays with them.

So buy from artisans! Shop at your local potter, beekeeper, couturier, farmer, bakery, woodworker, candlemaker, art gallery. Support us Indie authors, too. We may not sell at the farmers’ market, but we are artists and craftsmen, just the same.